


Happiness Is Not All Encompassing

by orphan_account



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Amnesia, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-09
Updated: 2014-06-09
Packaged: 2018-02-04 00:57:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1761215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He tells himself it's nothing special. <i>It'll just plague his mind if he remembers.</i> His lips part and a name passes through his lips. <i>He wants to throw up.</i></p><p>For Day 2 of <a href="http://www.aokiseweek.tumblr.com">Aokise Week</a> on Tumblr - Graduation/<strike>Same School</strike>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Happiness Is Not All Encompassing

He tells himself it's nothing special. 

 

He's a university student, and really, he has no business being here, at the graduation of the third years of Touou Academy. It's already the second year since he himself has graduated from Kaijou High School, but here he is, in a suit and pretending that he knows someone in the crowd.

 

Out of the peripheral vision of his eye, he sees someone that looks familiar, and turns to see Wakamatsu nodding at him. He blinks, wondering why the other is here, before he looks on stage and the valedictorian has very similar features to the once Center of Touou's basketball team, and then he understands.

 

He can tell Wakamatsu isn't particularly surprised to see him here, and he wonders why. Was it that obvious that the reason he's attending this graduation ceremony at all is the man that's currently walking up the stage to receive his diploma?

 

Aomine Daiki.

 

* * *

 

_Kise received the call halfway through a photo shoot for a brand he can no longer remember. He broke the contract off, any way - it was too painful to continue modeling for the brand when it brought back memories he would rather forget._

_"Kise-kun?" He hears Aomine's mother's voice through the phone. "Kise-kun, Daiki--"_

_He drops the phone._

* * *

 

Kise sees Wakamatsu walk up to him after the ceremony, his younger sister having been bombarded by friends. There's another nod of recognition, and Kise doesn't expect much else, so is slightly shocked when Wakamatsu starts talking to him.

 

"You came here for him."

 

It's a statement, not a question. Somehow or another - or maybe he was just that predictable - Wakamatsu knows that he's here to see Aomine graduate. He can feel the sympathy radiating off the older man, and he sighs, sticking his hands in the pockets of his suit.

 

"Did you expect anything else?"

 

Something flickers in Wakamatsu's eyes, but shakes his head. Of course he hadn't expected anything else. This was Kise Ryouta he was talking about, the once lover of Aomine Daiki, before he'd been involved in that accident, before he'd been in a coma for eight months, before he'd awoken to an amnesiac mind.

 

"How is he?" Kise asks, because he can't keep tabs on Aomine anymore, not since he's been busy in university, busy with modeling, and mostly because Aomine doesn't know him, doesn't know who he is any longer, and staying by him keeping tabs on him would just be even more painful.

 

"He's a lot better," Wakamatsu says, because he's asked his sister to help keep an eye on Aomine for him - he was his team mate after all. "He integrated back into the school system pretty easily. He did take part in basketball, as I'm sure you know, and he's happy."

 

  
_He's happy_. That was really all Kise wanted to know, if he was going to be perfectly honest with himself. Of course, there were parts of him that wanted to think that maybe Aomine felt as though something was missing, as though he wasn't complete, but that wasn't the case, was it? Aomine was happy, now that he was able to go back to school, be himself again.

 

And that was all that Kise really wanted.

 

* * *

  
_"He doesn't remember anything?" Kise asks the doctor, his voice low and monotonous to the point that it would make Kuroko proud. "Nothing at all?"_

_"That's the strange thing, really," The doctor frowns, "He can name everyone, in the photo that his mother showed him. Everyone except..."_

_And Kise doesn't need to hear the final word, because he knows._

  
_Aomine remembers everyone except_  him.

 

* * *

  
Despite telling himself that it was okay, that it was fine, that this was what he truly wanted for Aomine - happiness - he can't help but gravitate towards the other.

 

He sees the Generation of Miracles, who'd been bonded together again due to Aomine's amnesia. They'd helped him regain most of his shattered, fragmented memories, all except those of Kise.

 

It had been his own wish.

 

Akashi looks up to nod at him, and the rest do the same. Kise nods back in greeting, but keeps to the shadows. As long as Aomine is happy with the rest, as long as Aomine can smile like that at Kuroko, can banter with Kagami, can stick his tongue out at Midorima, can steal some of Murasakibara's snacks, can dodge Akashi's scissors, Kise thinks it's fine if he never remembers him as a lover, as a friend, as the man that he loves.

He turns, and leaves.

 

* * *

  
_"It'll just plague his mind, if that happens," Kise says, eyes sad and determined at the same time._   


_He can feel Aomine's parent's concern. They know about their son's relationship with the blond model, and despite Aomine being their only child - because Aomine is their only child - they don't have anything against it. If anything, they adore Kise, adore the way that he can make Aomine happy, can make Aomine smile and laugh like he used to._

_"Are you sure?" Aomine's mother asks, lips parted and eyes downcast. She knows how much Kise loves her son, has experienced it first hand when they first revealed their romantic relationship, the way that Kise said that he would never leave Aomine regardless of what his parents thought._

_"If you tell him, then he'll try to remember. He'll feel guilty if he can't, and he'll feel even worse if he were to fall in love with someone else, because he's bound to me," Kise explains, his heart heavy with emotions and eyes heavy with tears. "It's better if he forgets."_

_He feels the arms of Aomine's mother around him, holding him, giving him the strength he so desperately needed. It feels like Aomine's touch, but it's not, and the similar difference makes him break down._

* * *

Despite all efforts to stay away, Aomine finds him leaning against the tree near the  _konbini_  that's opposite Touou's side gate. It probably was him wanting Aomine to find him, even if he'd told himself that he was going to let Aomine go, that small part of him probably led him to wait here, to muse here of all places.

  


 "Hey."

 

Kise looks up, jolted out of his own thoughts, a popsicle in hand, and Aomine's grinning down at him. For a second, he thinks that maybe Aomine's remembered who he is, but pushes that idea out of his mind. He'd told himself that he wouldn't think like that, that he wanted Aomine to be happy. Hoping that Aomine's come back to him is like breaking his own promise to himself and he doesn't want to be a liar.

 

Aomine hates liars.

 

"Hello," Kise returns, all politeness and smiles that he shoots to the camera. They aren't his genuine ones; Aomine'd called them his plastic smiles back when they were still together, lying on the bed one lazy afternoon as Aomine skims through a magazine that had Kise's icy cold look on it, glaring at the camera as though it had offended him. The inside is all smiles and grins, happy poses and winks, but Aomine had known that they weren't the genuine kind.

 

There's an awkward pause in which neither of them knows what to say, and Kise has to wonder just why Aomine is talking to him. It must be strange to talk to a total stranger, right?

 

"So, uhm. Someone you know graduated today?" Aomine randomly asks, and Kise watches as he unwraps his own popsicle, and sticks it in his mouth.

 

Kise laughs, the familiar act making a bubble of nostalgia well within him. He nods in reply to Aomine's question, tilting his head to let his bangs fall out of his eyes. "Yeah. A friend of mine, actually."

 

He's given a nod, and Aomine actually looks interested, in the stranger outside the  _konbini_ , who he randomly struck a conversation up with. "Do I know him?"

 

"How should I know?" Kise grins back, letting himself enjoy his once lover's presence, because he's been starving himself of Aomine's affection, of Aomine's voice and the way he looks, the way he smells, and he wants him, craves him,  _needs him--_  


Aomine chuckles, that deep, low, husky chuckle. "Well, maybe I know him. You just have to tell me his name, right?"

 

"What makes you think he's male?" Kise asks, amused. 

 

That stops the other short, and Aomine shrugs casually. "I don't know, I just kind of figured he was male. Intuition...?"

 

That gets a laugh out of Kise, because Aomine's  _Aomine_ , even if he can't remember him, and it makes him laugh and yet want to cry at the same time. But he can't cry, because then Aomine would freak out and question him and he's not sure he can stop himself from blurting everything out.

 

"Come on," Aomine urges, "Their name?"

 

Kise pauses. He can't say their name, because it's  _Aomine Daiki_  he came here for, and he sure as hell doesn't know anyone else. His lips part and a name passes through his lips. "Wakamatsu-san..."

 

"Oh, her?" Aomine muses, "I'm not really close to her, but I do know of her. Valedictorian, eh?"

 

He wants to cry, wants to run into Aomine's arms and sob his heart out, tell Aomine he loves him, that he doesn't want the other to leave him, that he doesn't want to leave Aomine, and it hurts, it hurts, it hurts to much because he can't do a single damned thing about it. "Yeah," He agrees, and even to himself his voice sounds fake. 

 

There's another bout of awkward silence, but this time it's Kise who breaks it with a small smile and a wave and a, "It was nice meeting you, Aomine-san, but I have to go, now! See you!" and quickly starts to walk off.

 

"When are you going to stop lying to yourself?"

 

* * *

_"What do we tell him, then, when he wakes up? He's going to ask about you, since you're in the picture with the Generation, as well."_

_Kise stares blankly at the opposite wall, the pure white making him want to throw up._

_"Just tell him... We were never really that close, and that I transferred schools soon after that picture was taken."_

* * *

Kise starts, and turns around, giving another awkward smile. "What do you mean, Aomine-san?"

 

Aomine's gaze is hard. "I never told you my name."

 

  
_Shit_.

 

Now all that he's done has gone down the drain. Because some way or another, Aomine  _knows_ , and he wants to curse and swear because Aomine finding out who he is is a disaster that he can't fight against on his own, and he's scared and he's terrified because if Aomine says one more sentence, Kise's going to barrel into Aomine's arms and all that he's done so far will be a waste.

 

"When are you going to stop running?"

 

Kise's lower lip quivers. "You weren't supposed to find out."

 

Aomine moves closer, and Kise takes a deep breath that's supposed to calm himself down, but he's surrounded by Aomine's scent and it just makes him fall apart even more. There's a soothing hand on his chin, and his head is tilted up until blue eyes are boring into his gold, and Kise can't  _breathe_  because Aomine is here, touching him again.

 

"I didn't," Aomine whispers, just before he kisses Kise. "I remembered."

**Author's Note:**

> Aomine is graduating a year later than Kise, because of the coma he was in for 8 months. After recovering, he took it upon himself to at least finish high school, so he's one year behind the Generation in that sense, which is why Kise can take the time to attend his graduation.


End file.
